Power Rankings: Rockets take off

The stunning twin losing streaks that have engulfed Miami and Indiana unexpectedly opened the door for a new No. 1 in ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings. And it's the Houston Rockets, in another huge surprise, who jump up to fill the void, edging past the Los Angeles Clippers and San Antonio Spurs for top honors.

The Rockets' 23-6 record since Jan. 1 is the NBA's best. Factor in their home wins last week over Miami and Indy, and the Rockets had to be the choice, despite the fact that L.A. (leading the league in average point margin at plus-7.1 after seven straight wins) and San Antonio (six straight wins of their own) each has a worthy case.

The Rockets, in case you missed it, were the 10th team this season to have a crack at playing the Heat and the Pacers during the same week ... and the first of those 10 to win both games. Now let's see how far Houston can take its 15-2 surge with road games looming in OKC, Chicago and Miami.

You can live with the Clips letting those nosediving Hawks hang around Saturday night when you remember Blake Griffin & Co. had won their previous six games by an average margin of 19.5 points. Especially when Atlanta had Paul Millsap back in the lineup after the All-Star missed five games.

The Spurs are as full-strength, roster-wise, as they've been all season. The Spurs are hot again, too, at a tidy 13-3 since Feb. 1. And the Spurs, perhaps most crucially, are 38-9 when the Kawhi Leonard is in uniform. Compared to a mortal 8-7 when Leonard is out injured.

After all of our recent fawning over LeBron, it's only right as a follow-up if we point out that his mere 41 points combined in the two games after his 61-point eruption is the second-lowest such total in history. Turns out Tom Chambers, according to Elias, went 60-20-18 for the Suns in March 1990.

Allowing 41 points to Gerald Green and 42 points to Jodie Meeks in back-to-back games has to be some sort of wake-up call for the Thunder, who need to finish with a winning percentage of at least .733 to record an increase in that category for a league-record-tying sixth straight season.

The short list of teams to avoid a three-game losing streak this season is down to the Rockets and Clippers thanks to Indy's recent slippage on both sides of the ball. A sweep of those last two Miami games might be mandatory now if the Pacers hope to hang on to that precious No. 1 seed.

The question has been asked all season long: Who's the third-best team in the East? They sure took the circuitous route to get there, losing D-Rose to another knee tear and trading away Luol Deng, but is there any doubt now that it's the Bulls and All-NBA first-team contender Joakim Noah?

Quite a week for the Griz. They had to visit three of the East's hotter teams, sandwiching wins in Washington and Chicago around a loss in Brooklyn, and finally inched up to No. 8 ahead of Phoenix, which gets Eric Bledsoe back this week but will be on the road for 13 of its final 20 games.

The Raps take a four-game lead over second-place Brooklyn into Monday's showdown, with 21 games to go for each team, as they close in on their first Atlantic Division title since 2006-07. DeMar DeRozan, meanwhile, is up to 13 30-point games ... after 12 in his first four seasons combined.

The Dubs are the only Western Conference team that can claim road wins over both Indiana and Miami. The Dubs have won 14 of their last 19 away dates. The Dubs play 11 of their final 18 games at home and need to start seeing the Road Warriors show up in Oakland with greater frequency.

It's a funny old game sometimes. The Mavs are 15-19 against .500-or-better teams and the Suns are 13-20, which ranks eighth and ninth, respectively, among the West's top nine teams. Those same Mavs and Suns, meanwhile, are the only two teams to sweep Indiana so far this season.

Losing at home to these Lakers is obviously troubling. Losing at home to these Lakers before tipping off a killer road trip with agonizing losses in Dallas and Houston made it sting worse for an out-of-rhythm LaMarcus Aldridge, who increasingly looks as though he'll have to settle for a No. 5 seed.

Who had the Wiz winning five out of their first six games without the injured Nene? Our next question: Who had John Wall hitting another gear while Nene's knee heals ... and Trevor Ariza draining all his 3s and playing even better than Wall has in that same stretch? The correct answer: Nobody.

Friday night's loss at Boston was a letdown based on the Nets' new standards in 2014, but it's hard to muster tons of outrage when the L was preceded by a four-game winning streak with an average victory margin of 14.3 PPG ... including victories over the toasty Bulls and Grizzlies.

Just when you're convinced Goran Dragic absolutely, positively has to be named the NBA's Most Improved Player this season, someone lets you know Gerald Green entered the weekend averaging 23.3 PPG in 33.0 MPG over his previous 12 outings. The Suns really do have a team full of MIPs.

No team in circulation is harder to rank. They've ridden a 7-3 surge to hold firm at .500. That oft-discussed nightly point differential (plus-3.9) continues to suggest they're one of the league's top 10 teams. But what do you do when you know the Wolves have little to no shot of snagging a playoff spot?

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Last Week: 17

Better start getting used to the idea that the Bobcats are playoff-bound. Al Jefferson is averaging 26.3 PPG since the break -- compared to 20.1 PPG en route to his All-Star snubbing -- and Steve Clifford's Bobs have quietly won their last six home games by an average margin of 13.3 PPG.

The Nuggets' run of 10 successive seasons in the playoffs is obviously gonzo, but Ty Lawson's return from injury has restored a sliver of normalcy to Denver affairs. He's one of only four players this season averaging at least 18 PPG and 8 APG, along with Steph Curry, John Wall and Chris Paul.

Make it three-plus weeks and counting for the committee (of one) without seeing a single gorgeous beignet caked in powdered sugar. Not that we're about to get any sympathy from the reeling Pels when the hits just keep coming; Jrue Holiday's season-ending leg surgery was just the latest.

The Knicks' plan, even if Phil Jackson agrees to take their offer, is to keep Mike Woodson in place for the rest of the season. Woody, though, is advised to lose neither of the Knicks' two games against Philly in the next 11 days with a playoff berth still within mathematical reach. Just to be safe.

The Cavs have now lost twice to the Knicks since Jan. 30. The Knicks have otherwise dropped their last seven games against fellow Eastern Conference opposition. The Cavs, however, are still as alive as the Knicks are in the, er, chase to catch No. 8 Atlanta in the Least. What a country.

Four games remain on the Kings' seven-game trip, which started in Milwaukee. Philosophical questions that come to mind: Is it better, for confidence-building purposes, to open such a lengthy journey with the easiest game? Or does it actually make the trip seem even longer?

A comeback from 18 down against OKC? After allowing 130-plus points in each of the previous three games? Elias says the Lakers' unlikely rally Sunday was the first time the worst team in a conference beat the best in March or later since Chicago toppled Philly in their 2000-01 season finale.

Hawks fans undoubtedly need a pick-me-up after the expiration of Kyle Korver's amazing 3-point streak and a 1-15 nosedive that has strayed into its sixth week. So here it is: Atlanta still has a 75.8 percent shot to advance to the postseason, according to the latest Hollinger Playoff Odds.

Detroit is in no position to look past anyone it plays outside of Motor City limits -- especially with Boston fresh off a home win over Brooklyn -- but Sunday's L on the Celts' floor was a body blow to the Pistons' fading playoff delusions. Fifty-one days and counting since their last road win Jan. 18.

We just witnessed some impactful spoiler work from the Celts, as evidenced by the fact that the committee (of one) was moved to use the comment space to gently chide two teams above them (Brooklyn and Detroit) after both came to Boston and wound up departing with a weekend loss.

The Jazz were facing the very real prospect of an 0-6 road trip when the schedule, for that sixth and final game, presented Utah with an opportunity to visit friendlier-than-ever Philly at the Wells Fargo Center. Rest assured the visitors had enough gas left in the tank to cash in on the opportunity.

Teams throughout the West are bound to pout if Big Baby Davis ends up making a playoff impact for the Clippers, but you can understand the buyout from Orlando's perspective. It helps free up PT for Tobias Harris, who's averaging 19.3 points on 52.2 percent shooting since the All-Star break.

Only two teams in history have played an entire 82-game schedule without registering at least one two-game winning streak: the 1986-87 L.A. Clippers and the 2004-05 Atlanta Hawks. The 2013-14 Milwaukee Bucks have 20 games left to ensure they don't wind up landing on that dreaded list.

Uh-oh. The Sixers sit only six more losses away from surpassing the longest skid in franchise history -- 20 straight L's in the famously hideous 1972-73 season -- and even beleaguered coach Brett Brown himself is openly wondering if these Sixers, as currently constituted, can win another game.